Athletics: Hurdler Claxton out to be fastest girl at the checkout

This weekend's European Indoor Championships are vital for a British athlete making ends meet at Tesco. Mike Rowbottom reports

It was not strictly necessary for Sarah Claxton to take in her Team GB shoes to convince her colleagues at Tesco that she really was an Olympic athlete.

It was not strictly necessary for Sarah Claxton to take in her Team GB shoes to convince her colleagues at Tesco that she really was an Olympic athlete.

But if there had been any lingering doubts among her fellow workers at the Leytonstone branch, where she spends three evenings a week in the clothing department, the appearance of the official footwear was enough to dispel them.

In the course of the last month, her credentials have been strengthened still further with televised appearances in the European Indoor trials, where she set a British 60 metres hurdles record of 7.96sec, and at the Norwich Union grand prix, where she defeated a strong international field in 7.98sec.

At the age of 25, Claxton appears finally to be getting into her stride after finding the transition from the junior ranks - where she won four successive English Schools titles at long jump, and finished fourth in the world junior championships - frustratingly tricky.

Having been knocked out in the heats of the hurdles at the last three World Indoor Championships, and having finished a disappointed 12th in the long jump at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Claxton has taken her performance to a higher level this year under the guidance of a new coach, Lloyd Cowan.

So much so that she will travel to the European Indoor Championships, which start in Madrid tomorrow, with a chance of a hurdles medal as equal fourth fastest in this year's European rankings.

Susanna Kallur of Sweden leads the list with 7.90sec and Kirsten Bolm of Germany has done 7.93sec, while Claxton and Irina Shevchenko of Russia are both 0.03sec behind. Spain's naturalised Nigerian, Glory Alozie, moved to second last week with a time of 7.72sec at the venue where the championships will take place.

When Claxton approached Cowan to take over her coaching last year, he did so on the condition that she made a hard choice between her long jumping and high hurdling, which was causing her to split time between training venues in London and her native town of Colchester, where her jumping was coached by Denis Costello.

"You have got to put all your eggs in one basket," Cowan said. "If you're good at two things, you don't give 100 per cent to either because you've always got the other one to fall back on."

Dropping the long jump, which she first took to as a nine-year-old, has not been straightforward.

"It was a hard decision, because I've always enjoyed the event," Claxton said. "When I was watching the long jump at the trials this month I had to fight the urge to go out and do a few jumps myself. But I think the decision has paid off."

Concentrating on the hurdles was not the only adjustment Claxton had to make, however, as she did not come with the reputation of being an unwavering worker.

"My ethics of working and hers were on a different planet at the start," Cowan said. "It obviously took some time for her to understand what I required from her. Now I'm just the tyrant. I never smile, I always have the long face. Anything she likes, we don't do. And anything she doesn't like - jogging, or weight training - that's what we do. But I believe if you want to be the best, you have got to put the hard work in.

"When I took her on she was a little bit timid, a bit shy. But she's being more independent now and she has a positive input into training. It's all about building confidence."

Claxton admits that in the past this has been a weak point for her. Her worst experience was in Manchester at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, where she was overwhelmed with the level of home support.

"Ours was the first event, and everyone is just focusing on you. It just got to me a bit. It was the same at the Olympics. When I looked up at all those people high in the stands, and all the cameras flashing. I had to put on my sunglasses to calm myself down."

But now she believes she has found the ideal way of dealing with the stress - a good read. The latest book to have been deployed in her defence is The Amulet of Samarkand, whose mystical powers protected her both in Sheffield and Birmingham.

"I often start to panic before competing, so I need something to take my mind off it," she said. "Now I have a different focus."

For all that, Claxton is still struggling to keep her athletics career on the road. Earlier this month she almost found herself stranded in the snow as her ailing Vauxhall Astra - "it's almost dying on me" - overheated on the way to training at Crystal Palace.

Because she had not jumped sufficiently far, she was dropped from the Lottery funding scheme last March. That status would be resumed if she were to earn a medal in Madrid. In the meantime, however, she has received a Sport England grant to support her in her preparations for next year's Commonwealth Games.

But her immediate appointment in Madrid, in an event which has hastened the emergence of many top British athletes over the years, is commanding her full attention.

"The Europeans coming up will be the first international championship where she will be a medal contender," Cowan said. "And as her coach, I am aware that people will be looking to see how I have prepared my athlete.

"She's got to step up to the plate, which she hasn't always done in the past. Winning a gold medal in the European Championships could be the start of something wonderful for her. She is young, and she's still girly. But people don't see the true side of her. She is a competitor, and she is trying to do the things that have been inside her for so long.

"She's been going really well this year, and if we can carry that form through to Madrid she's got a real chance. No one is going to give her anything. Championships are the time when athletes come out and show their true colours. If she can create a platform for herself there, though, there is so much more to come. You will see an athlete capable of competing with the best in the world. At the moment, she's a good carat - a nine carat nugget. She's looking to be an 18. And eventually, the best thing is a 24... that's pure."

Claxton endorses her coach's optimism, albeit in a more conventional fashion.

"I'm really happy with the way things are going," she said. "I have a lot more confidence now than I used to have."

It could be that her colleagues at Tesco are about to see something a great deal shinier and more impressive than a pair of shoes.